[Spoiler] Desperados: The Black Sword & Agent

[The Black Sword]

I was more thinking 2 warriors and our scout. Impis are pretty expensive at 35h each, I'm not sure we can afford that straight away. Though getting one out to deal with barbs would certainly be good. Need to see where copper shows up anyway.

[agent427]

Metal is located on the spot I previously marked as a "filler city."



I think this unbalances the current dotmap... If I settle 1N of the Dyes, then I'd have to wait until that city's border pops to mine & hook up the bronze. That's 5 turns for chopping barracks, 10 turns for border pop, right? (forget if they're +1 culture or +2).

[The Black Sword]

I guess we can move it NW now, get 1st ring rice and copper, second ring clams? That's not bad. Then maybe move the furs city 1N, to pick up the last river grassland.

Or we could just go 1S of the copper and share the pigs at the start, that's not bad, could grow a lot of capital cottages.

I think scouting further around that area is definitely a good idea.

So it seems we have 3 good settlement goals; copper, fish and silver.

[agent427]

If sheep zone is an island, it looks like that Fish is indeed in our Zone of Control.

The Twin Peaks/River area looks like another nightmare choke point, perhaps that's a recurring theme in this map?

[The Black Sword]

Nice, that island does look like a midpoint that two civs are supposed to fight over. Could be important for early trade routes.

[agent427]

I messed up your beautiful micro plan by forgetting to grow on T26 Forgive me!!!

Here's where we're at at T30


Worker build in cap is at 32/60, food bin is 14/24. Grow 2 turns (T31, T32) on an Ikhanda then whip the Worker.

Both workers improving the wheat at uMg, finishes T33, city should be size 2 at T36.

Can you confirm that the best time to whip in a granary is when the food bin is at 50%+1?

Scouting to the northwest-- another natural barrier here, bear blocking further scouting in this direction. No contact with anyone else.

[The Black Sword]

I messed up your beautiful micro plan by forgetting to grow on T26. Forgive me!!!

I'll let it pass since we sit on top of the scoreboard.

Some thoughts:

In the capital, I'd grow on a warrior instead of an Ikhanda. No real need for the Ikhanda there yet and we could always use more warriors. Growing the 2nd city on an Ikhanda is better though, since it will let us connect the clams. Finishing the current warrior is probably a good idea though, since we're short.

For our next objectives, I'd like to
1. Decide where our next city is going to go and then figure out how we're getting it.
2. Get a warrior out ASAP to check out the gold area.

I take it the bear is blocking the scout's path West? What about heading North to find our neighbour up there and how close they are to that lovely land?

Here's a rundown on the granary mechanics:
You have a separate granary box, that can fill up to 1/2 the food box. The turn you complete the Granary, this box is empty. Every turn after that you, in order:
1. Add the current food surplus to the Granary box, if it isn't full.
2. Add the current food surplus to the food box.
3. If you grow, add the current amount in the granary box to your food box.

So, if you whip the granary on the same turn you hit 1/2 food in the box, you are guaranteed to get the full granary surplus on the next growth. That doesn't necessarily mean it's the ideal time though, you can still get the full bonus if you complete the granary with more than 1/2 food in the box.

For example, suppose we whip 3-> 2 whip the granary in our city 2, where we make 7fpt and we have 16/24 in the box at the end of the turn the granary completes. Next turn we have 23/24 in the box and 7/12 in the granary. the following turn our granary fills up to 12/12 before we grow and we get the full food bonus.

In fact we could end the turn with 17/24f in the box, which is where the Avoid Growth trick comes in. On the following turn, if we tick avoid growth, we will end turn at 24/24 but stay at size 2, again 7/12 in the granary. Next turn we fill up our granary and then grow to size 3 where we will have 19/26 in the box straight away! If we had grown and just worked an extra grass farm that turn instead we would have 15/26 in the box.

Tl;dr - the ideal time is the one that maximises your yields and can vary. If you whip it in on the turn you finish with food box 1/2 full though, you are guaranteed full granary bonus.

[agent427]

The bear was blocking the north. Didn't defog it entirely but I assume there is a 1-tile gap in the dark spot, plus the Plains Hill access point.
I'll have the scout dance around and try to break through since judging by our own set-up, there's got to be a player positioned behind that 'barrier.'
If we lose the scout, he has at least done plenty of work for us already, and demonstrated that we have plenty of breathing room in at least one direction.

Thoughts on next city:
-The copper is appealing to prevent a Boak situation (some jerk who bee-lined copper shows up in our borders with an axeman). But, once it's hooked up, cheap warrior builds get replaced by 35H Axes.
Doing so would temporarily rob the capital of its highest yield tile (Pigs), but the Cap should be pumping out settlers and we're getting most of our settler production from chops so it's not too bad.
It will need an Ikhanda & Border Pop to start working that Rice.

-The Eastern Fish site-- uMg could chop out a workboat in advance of the settler, as long as it's done 5T before the city is founded, the Fish city would have its food resource set up by the time it is settled.
Does not need an Ikhanda ASAP.

[The Black Sword]

Whoops, sorry, thought the bear was west. I wouldn't risk the scout, searching either west or north is fine, I'm sure there'll be a neighbour both directions.

Looking at the land up there, there's a great site on the grassland 3E1N of the scout though, seems to have LH lake fish and another fishing resource. It would be nice to know if that's a reach or not, could be another settling goal.

Re: the copper city, what do you think about pushing it 1W for first ring rice, second ring clam?

Either fish or copper sounds good to me. I'd guess the fish city is slightly better economically(and we should get Umgetc. to build it's WB, yeah) but it would be nice to be able to connect up copper when we need it. Don't need to road it straight away but the option of some impis would be nice.

[agent427]

2 fish!! And one's freshwater!! Heavenly. I have no idea how you spotted that in the garbled graphical mess of my shots without resource indicators.



Turn 31 sees first contact, with Whosit, somewhere to our south.



Any tips on how to react? I know I've seen Joey flip out as an enemy war'decced to pass a scout through his turf, in the process blocking off resource tiles. I could hit this scout with a warrior if it moves within range, but would doing so unprovoked cause problems down the line?